Product Review- Anova Sous Vide Machine

My first lesson in Sous Vide, was from Chef Jose Picazo, Executive Chef at Julian Serrano in Las Vegas. I was under the impression that the machinery needed, to accomplish this special style of cook, was VERY EXPENSIVE. The process that is explained in simple detail, is here. “Sous Vide For Dummies”

There are a few companies, that have created Sous Vide machines, for use at home. Anova’s sous vide immersion circulator, cooks foods in their own juices, to a precise temperature, and makes even my cheap-ass cuts of meat, taste moist and yummy.

Anova Culinary, a company that I had never heard of before, offered to send me one of their Anova sous vide machines to give my honest opinions, in a blog post, so I’m here to give them what they want….

My hot looking blue colored model of the Anova, is super high tech looking, and dare I say, SEXY? To quote their tag line, Simple. Powerful and Detailed. I fondled it before I put it in the water bath, it was irresistible. I prepared some REALLY good food, sous vide style with a very affordable machine and the whole process was really fun and rewarding. The Anova machine retails for only $199.00 and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get some compliments on relatively simple meals.

As my Chef mentor, José Picazo, had explained to me, the process requires that food be placed into vacuum sealed plastic bags. In lieu of spending 100 bucks to purchase a proper sealing machine, I sucked the air out of the plastic bags. I’d have to suck and zip at the same time, which was a little tricky. Suck and zip. Suck and zip. I was able to get most of the air out, but it would have been nice to have the sealing gizmo.

Dan was really getting into the Sous Vide cooking, so he searched around the internet and found something cool from Ziploc that would make the sucking a little easier. Who doesn’t love a man who wants to make sucking easier?These bags from Ziploc are really easy to use. They have a small circle on the side that is where the air is drawn from, by a syringe type gizmo that pulls the air out of the bags. Less sucking for me to do. Picture my happy face:-)

We’ve made pork chops, carrots, chicken, and steaks so far with the Anova machine and everything has been incredibly delcicious. Some of the recipes call for “torching” the meats after they slow cook, at a very specific temperature. We don’t have one of those smoking guns, but Dan brought me a torch home from work and I used that. Leave it to Dan, to have a blow torch on hand.

There are now several companies that are making machines for the home cook. My first machine from Polyscience was pretty fantastic, but the on screen controls, were a little annoying.

The Polyscience machine, requires a lot of button pushing to turn it on, and, to set the temperature and time. My sexy looking Anova machine, is much more visually appealing, and isn’t that what we all want in life. Things that are pretty to look at?

Look how skinny and sexy this Anova machine is. It doesn’t take up too much room in my teeny NYC kitchen closet.

What I like the best about the Anova machine, besides how amazingly delicious the food tastes, is the easy to read and simple to use touch screen. The only thing the Anova was lacking was a manual telling me at which temperature, and period of time, I need to cook my foods.